WELL READ By: Hon. Charles A. Cerny
Knox County General Sessions Court Division I
CHASING THE SCREAM, THE FIRST AND LAST DAYS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS Since I am the acting Recovery Court Judge in Knox County, it should come as no surprise that another judge recommended that I read a book that re-examines the “War on Drugs.” And it’s not a surprise that I would read it and recommend it to my friends in the Knoxville Bar Association. In fact, it won’t shock you if I tell you that every American should read Chasing the Scream, The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, by Johann Hari. Remember the movie “Sleepless in Seattle”? We all knew from the beginning that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s characters were “MFEO” (“Made For Each Other”). It becomes a matter of execution. Are we going to become endeared to the characters and become engrossed in their journey to a predictable destination, because the writer is skilled at taking us along on the journey? Johann Hari has skillfully executed a critical examination of the “War on Drugs” by introducing us to multiple combatants in this war. The normal approach would be to study and compile statistics and use data to support a logical argument to reach a conclusion about policy changes. Hari has the data and statistics, certainly. But more importantly, Hari uses his own interest in helping the addicted family members in his own life to motivate his research. And his research includes studying the diaries and journals of historical figures, or actually interviewing and getting to know several participants in the “war.” Because he is skilled and compassionate, we become endeared to them and engrossed in the journey they are on, and we care about the conclusions they reach. Let’s start this way: watch Hari’s TED Talk. Yes, he does give away one of the major conclusions in the book. But it is very helpful to have a visual image of the author and an idea of what his voice sounds like. And the TED Talk is excellent. After a brief introduction to the author, let’s get some historical context: did the “War on Drugs” start with Nancy Reagan and “Just Say No?” Did it begin during the Nixon administration? Nope. Prohibition ended in 1933. Despite what we learned from Prohibition about creating a black market to fund organized crime, the “War on Drugs” began contemporaneously with the end of Prohibition. Now, let’s meet the characters on the journey. Once again, a comparison to movies or other literary forms is helpful: from the beginning, we meet three characters and Hari uses “parallel editing” to develop them and show us how their lives eventually crash into each other. Harry Anslinger is the real historical figure who almost single handedly created the hysteria and fear that drugs would bring an end to civilization as we know it. He is the Director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and unfairly targets jazz singer Billie Holiday. Holiday’s love affair with jazz music begins when she is six years old, and “[e]ven after she was raped, and after she was pimped, and after she started to inject heroin to take away the pain, the music would still be there waiting for her.” Arnold Rothstein had the benefit of growing up in a wealthy family, but his successful father interrupted his first attempted murder when he was three years old. (He almost stabbed his sleeping older brother.)
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Rothstein would become the most notorious and feared gangster on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. “For his system to work, Rothstein had to invent the modern drug gang… Arnold’s gangs were as disciplined as military units…” Harry, Billie and Arnold’s lives will intersect in history and on Hari’s journey to understand the “War on Drugs.” We move on to another milestone in our journey, and we meet another character: “I closed the files on Harry and Arnold and Billie and resolved to find myself a drug dealer…It was time for me to watch the drug war’s history unfold in real time.” Enter Chino Hardin, a drug dealer and gang banger from East Flatbush in Brooklyn. Chino will absolutely surprise you. There is nothing remotely predictable about Chino. Including the fact that he’s transgender and leaves drug dealing behind and becomes an activist. It’s only fair to get law enforcement’s perspective. So, let’s meet Leigh Maddox, an up and coming state trooper from Baltimore. “Her [subordinates] had clear orders: Go for numbers. Get the maximum possible arrests…” She was “Anslinger’s dream girl made flesh.” She completes her “retraining as a lawyer, quits her job as a cop, and starts providing services to the very people she had been busting and breaking before.” Heard of Joe Arpaio? He was an agent for Harry Anslinger in 1957, before becoming Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. (Small world, eh?) Let’s interview some of his inmates at his outdoor jail and see if shaming and draconian punishments are working. Want to know what it’s like to be in a drug cartel? We’ll meet Rosalio Reta, and he will (literally) show us his scars. Have you thought about whether all animal species use drugs at various times, perhaps giving us better understanding of the whole addiction phenomenon? Let’s interview a scientist who has studied drug use in animals. Has another country tried a different approach with success? Let’s travel to Portugal and interview Joao Figueira, the Chief of the Lisbon Drugs Squad. Johann Hari connects us to combatants in the “War on Drugs” we could never meet without his research. And the recordings of the interviews are available at www. chasingthescream.com. I’m going to have trouble making my deadline for this review, but it’s not my natural tendency to procrastinate this time. I keep pushing back from the word processor and re-reading the book because I can’t put it down. Of course some aspects are predictable, and Johann Hari reaches conclusions you expect (and some you don’t). But it’s about execution. Chasing the Scream is well executed, and you also will not be able to put it down.
DICTA
December 2021
